John Reilly continues researching, developing, writing, presenting and practicing techniques to identify, analyze, control and mitigate risk in complex infrastructure and underground projects. He has run risk identification and mitigation workshops for several large infrastructure and underground construction programs including:
- LA Metro Green Line Light Rail Project
- SEPTA M4 Vehicle manufacturing
- Sir Adam Beck Hydro Tunnel project
- San Diego Outfall tunnel project (definition of workshop structure)
- Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project, Seattle
- Alaska Railroad Extension
- Lima airport expansion, new runway and terminal, 2017 – 2019
Risk workshops allow a project team to quickly identify, quantify and evaluate potential threats, develop possible mitigation or risk reduction strategies, determine cost/benefits for these strategies and to decide a prudent course of action.
The work structure includes:
- Identify potential threats to the project
- Examine related linkages and causal drivers
- Quantify the impact of such threats if they should occur
- Evaluate the probability of the threats occurring
- Determine risk – defined as the product of impact and probability
- Rank risks for action (prioritize)
- Determine action plans for top-ranked risks
- Determine cost and cost/benefit for each action plan
- Decide which plans to implement
There is a distinction to be made between simple risk-identification techniques, as used in the workshops as conducted by John, and the more sophisticated work being done to develop an analytic framework that can be applied to complex manufacturing and tunnel projects. In this John is working on applications with researchers at the Swedish Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as other International Consultants and Professional Associations.
The principal limitation on the work is not the theory and its application, but the data to support simulation of conditions and production rates in the actual project, especially for complex underground geological conditions.
The image associated with this topic, the Stockholm Underground, is not one of John’s projects but recognizes the role that the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology has played in this work. Besides – it’s a great picture!
